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The habitants of municipalities: Prilep, Krishevo, Makedonski Brod, Bitola, Resen, Ohrid, Struga, Kavadarci and Negotino, in the cases of mistreatment by the police are receiving free legal counseling from Center for Civic Initiative – Prilep.
The initiative for support of the victims of police mistreatment started from 01.03.2005 when CCI joined the implementation of the Project for support of human rights, together with other four NGOs from Skopje, Strumica, Kumanovo and Tetovo.
With this project the attention is focused on illegal use of means of force by the police officers of the Ministry for Internal Affairs, and at the same time was worked on developing of effective mechanism for protection of the rights of the victims.
Trough this project the filed cases of police mistreatment are followed by:
- Effective investigation by the entitled state organs
- The police officers have been adequately sanctioned in the cases where there was violation of the human rights and freedoms (in one case the Court in Prilep reached the verdict where the police officer was 6 mounts in prison for police abuse and discipline measure – decreasing of the salary.
The development of the control systems for the work of the police officers, doesn’t mean mistrust and assault over the police system, but is an imperative of every democratic society that aspires toward development of the concept of human rights and rule of law. Because of that in the cases of mistreatment of the police officers, the citizens can file written submission to the Sector for Internal control and professional standards, which overtakes the investigation, also as reporting about the results of the investigation to the applicant.
The public defender, as independent, professional, and expert institution, uses all authorizations in the cases of illegal police behavior. Mostly its intervention is writing a letter to the Sector and waiting of response.
Main role in resolving the cases of illegal police mistreatment have the Public prosecutor and the courts.
The experiences of the public prosecutors that refer on collecting evidence in the cases of police mistreatment, point out that the cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs is satisfactory because on the filed requests for needed data and reports the response is complete and in reasonable deadline, which contributes for normal development and progress of the process.
In 2007 criminal files have been submitted and the public prosecutor filed indictment.
Aiming at strengthening the cooperation between Center for Civic Initiative and the abovementioned state institutions that receive files for possible violation of human rights trough misuse of the police authorizations, in 2007 were organized 3 local coordinative meetings. On the meetings besides building joint strategy for registered cases it increases the trust of the citizens towards the state institutions.
During the implementation of the project, in 2007 was worked on promotion of this initiative trough info-campaign, realized among the students from high schools and among the members of the NGOs on the territory of 9 municipalities where CCI works. This approach contributed in encouraging of the citizens to report the cases of police violence requesting for free help from the legal advisor in CCI.
After the legal analyses for 2007 (www.hrsp.org.mk) , CCI registered 7 cases of incorrect police behavior and in all cases the victims are male.
The project for support of the human rights will continue its implementation in the following year 2008, trough protection and promotion of the human rights, and awareness rising of the citizens in the cases when their rights are violated by the police officers.
The project is being implemented in the period 01.03.2005 – 31.12.2009, and financed by OSCE and the Foundation Institute Open Society.
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